Frances Grant Loring

Frances Grant Loring, a sixth generation Memphian, spent her life trying to build a better community wherever she was. She empowered women and minorities, helped further literacy, supported adult education, and was passionate about civil rights, racial and religious justice. A Humes High School valedictorian, she became an attorney who left an indelible mark on the local law community. She attended Vanderbilt University, earned a law degree from the Vanderbilt School of Law at age 21, and tied for the highest grade on the Tennessee bar examination., After graduating from law school in 1944, Loring went into private practice, but she left Memphis in 1949 to join the religious of the Cenacle Order and served in New York, Chicago and Rome. In 1965, she was granted permission to leave the order to pursue a doctorate in theology and, subsequently, taught theology at Christian Brothers College., Eventually, returned to private law practice in Memphis, where she was a member of the League of Women Voters and was active n civil rights, including the 1968 Sanitation Strike, when she marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1976, she ran unsuccessfully for Probate Court judge. A founding member of the Association for Women Attorneys in 1979, she was the first recipient of the AWA's annual award , the Marion Griffin-Frances Loring Award , Griffin, the first practicing female attorney in Tennessee who is also featured on this monument. She was a member of Network of Memphis and the Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association, as well as a founding member of the Tennessee Lawyers Association for Women.